On Capitol Hill, Sanford Picks Up Where He Left Off

In some ways, Mark Sanford, the newly elected Republican representative from South Carolina, felt as if he had never left Capitol Hill.

“I walked in and C-SPAN was on, with John Mica talking,” Mr. Sanford said, referring to Representative John Mica, Republican of Florida, with whom Mr. Sanford served in Congress during his first spin through the House in the 1990s. “Is it 13 years or is it just one minute?”

His return to Congress, Mr. Sanford concluded, was “sort of surreal.”

Surreal, indeed.

Mr. Sanford arrived in Washington on Wednesday as a congressman-elect, having defeated Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a Democratic businesswoman and older sister of the comedian Stephen Colbert, in a special election last week. In 2009, as governor of South Carolina, Mr. Sanford had found himself embroiled in a scandal when news broke that, rather than hiking the Appalachian Trail as he’d claimed, he had been in Argentina, engaged in an extramarital affair with María Belén Chapur.

At first, he said, he thought his career in politics was over. But when his former Congressional seat, in South Carolina’s first district, opened up recently, he re-entered politics and embarked on a rehabilitation tour â€" and won. He will retain his seniority in Congress, a boon when it comes to committee assignments.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sanford enjoyed a relaxed homecoming of sorts, with well-wishers offering him handshakes and congratulations as he made his way around the Congressional complex. In the afternoon, he joined roughly four dozen friends, family members and supporters at his House office, where the group gathered before heading outside for a photo on the steps of the Capitol.

In his office, Mr. Sanford dashed about, chatting with his sons â€" the older two had come to Washington for the occasion â€" and making introductions.

“There’s a great military guy â€" let me go find him,” he told two supporters, heading off in search of a military friend.

Later, he said to a different group of men, “You all are both in the world of commercial real estate.”

All afternoon, Mr. Sanford had been serving as a delighted, if slightly bewildered, tour guide, gamely rallying his merry crowd of supporters and turning to his aides to ask for guidance and further instructions. (“We’re following Raul,” he exalted at one point, gesturing to a staffer named Raul. “Everybody got it? All right, off we go!”)

When it was time for his swearing-in, Mr. Sanford personally thanked his friends â€" old and new, he said â€" many of whom had traveled from South Carolina to be with him.

“Stuff’s going to start happening pretty fast right now, so I just want to say thank you,” he said.

And then, he was off â€" though, like a dutiful leader, he continued to look back to make sure the rest of his group was in tow. First up was the ceremonial swearing-in, where Mr. Sanford was joined by Ms. Chapur (now his fiancée), his mother, his two sons, his sister and her husband â€" not to mention a healthy gaggle of reporters.

From there, he wandered into the Speaker’s Lobby, where a Republican aide worried, “We might want to get him somewhere other than surrounded by reporters.” Mr. Sanford was promptly ushered onto the House floor.

But the aide need not have fretted. The South Carolina delegation joined Mr. Sanford, whose official swearing-in was remarkably uneventful. As his family and friends looked on from the balcony, Mr. Sanford told his assembled colleagues that he stood before them “more appreciative than I ever could have been,” and thanked “the people of South Carolina, who have taught me a whole lot about love and humility, wisdom and grace.”

With that, Mr. Sanford was officially, again, a member of Congress, right back where he’d started more than a decade ago.